Community Angered over Canonical's Ubuntu One

With the release of its new online synchronization service Ubuntu One, Canonical seems to have made some enemies in the community.

The name Ubuntu has meant free software and many in the community find some deception in the name Ubuntu One in that behind it lurks a commercial and not open source project.

Developer Tony Yarusso has filed a bug report on Bugzilla requesting a renaming of the service. He wants to remove the word Ubuntu from it entirely. Yarusso also fears that Canonical intends to integrate the service into the client side of the upcoming Ubuntu versions, which he also considers a questionable practice. The bug started out by accusing Canonical of violating its trademark policy with the name, but the discussion migrated to the consensus that the Ubuntu One name "creates confusion."

Community manager Jono Bacon mixed into the discussion by countering that Canonical had every right to use the Ubuntu One name. He advised Yarusso to reassign the bug to the Ubuntu Technical Board, but admitted to the name confusion and that the issue is on the agenda of Ubuntu's next Community Council meeting. Mark Shuttleworth has not as yet made any comments.

Suggestions for a name change are abundant, including Canonical One, UbuOne and Ubunet.

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It is 2010, and Ubuntu is riding the crest of a wave. The distro named for a principle of African philosophy that is "too beautiful to even say in English" had legions of loyal users and, perhaps more importantly, legions of enthusiastic volunteers, even though the project was actually backed by a for-profit company called Canonical.